The best UK EAP providers for 2025

See how Spill stacks up against EAPs

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What makes the best EAP service?

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There are multiple interpretations for what ‘best EAP provider’ means. There is no ‘perfect’ EAP provider that will suit every company: it all depends on the services your employees will need, use, and benefit from. 

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When comparing the top EAP providers, we looked at the information provided by each organisation on their own website regarding the services they offer and any exclusions, and analysed any available reviews (from Trustpilot, Google and Glassdoor) to understand the pros and cons of each according to people who’ve actually used the service. 

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We’ve picked four different categories that we know are important for employers who come to Spill looking to buy employee mental health support, and chosen a winner for each one - plus an ‘all round’ winner based on coverage across all of these categories.

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A deep-dive into five of the best UK EAP providers

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• Spill: Best overall and highest rated Modern EAP
• Health Assured: Best EAP for high quality counselling 
• Spectrum Life: Best EAP for training and coaching
• TELUS (Lifeworks): Best EAP for self-guided support
• AXA Health: Best EAP for broad wellbeing coverage‍

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Spill: Best overall and highest rated Modern EAP

EAPs aren’t the only employee wellbeing benefit option out there. Spill is a modern EAP specifically designed to remove the barriers that are so often associated with employee assistance programmes. We’ve spent the last few years building new features to provide a better therapy experience for employees, and a pay-as-you-go pricing model that guarantees ROI for employers.

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Of all the EAP providers we’ve researched Spill is the only tool that includes next day therapy on-demand, mental health training for managers and self-guided content from qualified counsellors all in one platform. We also offer additional options for employee support including message based therapy, specialist neurodiversity support and health insurance integration. 

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But don’t just take our word for it, Spill also has the highest Trustpilot rating of all UK employee mental health support services. Users are recommending Spill for our simple booking system, range of options for support, and mainly for the outstanding quality of our therapy team. Check out our reviews for yourself.

Find out why Spill is the UK's top rated EAP alternative

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Health Assured: Best EAP for hiring qualification (and the largest provider)

Health Assured is one of the biggest EAP providers in the UK and has a network of over 2,000 qualified counsellors and mental health professionals. As part of their offering, Health Assured can provide both short-term counselling as well as trauma-specific interventions. Importantly, their requirement criteria for their counsellors is as follows:

• Be trained to at least diploma level in counselling
• Have a minimum of 12 months post-qualification experience
• Have 150 hours of counselling practice
• Be registered members or accredited by the BACP, NCPS, the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), and/or the British Psychological Society (BPS)
• Have proof of engagement in personal development for both Health Assured and their governing body

However, while Health Assured claim to have a much stricter set of hiring requirements when it comes to counsellors and therefore offer high quality support, Trustpilot reviews suggest that the process to be referred for counselling can take a long time (with many employees waiting several weeks for a callback) and that calls can only be scheduled during work hours (a big challenge for employees who can’t work remotely).

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Health Assured have also recently received a lot of bad press over confidentiality as covered in the BBC which may effect how much employees would trust and feel comfortable using the service.

Spectrum Life: Best EAP for online learning resources

Spectrum Life is a digital health and wellbeing platform providing clinically backed, instantly accessible care in a range of engaging formats. The offering focusses on “personalised programmes for proactive health management”, including 250+ hours of eLearning on topics including mental health, lifestyle, fitness and nutrition and unlimited lifestyle coaching.

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This is ideal for employers looking to develop a “prevention before treatment” approach and encourage interventions early in an employee’s health and wellbeing journey, reducing the severity of health issues and the need for more intensive treatments later. 

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However, the service is less developed when it comes to treating severe mental health conditions and supporting employees who are already in crisis. All plans include “short-term counselling for mild to moderate cases” but only offer “high intensity CBT and psychotherapy for difficulties that require long term support” as an add-on for an additional cost. This is reflected in their Glassdoor reviews, which express concerns over the quality of counselling available and employee confidentiality.

LifeWorks (TELUS Health): Best EAP for self-guided support

Offering a mobile app and online platform, Telus Health has focused on making their self-guided EAP resources best in class. ‍Their online resource library covers a broad range of topics covering all aspects of mental, physical and financial wellbeing. Employees have access to clinically verified resources to support a healthy lifestyle, including breathing exercises, nutrition plans and budgeting tools, with additional support available via a 24/7 helpline if needed. 

This approach is ideal for companies looking to provide broad wellbeing guidance for their teams in a way that’s easily accessible to all. On the flip side, Trustpilot reviews suggest that beyond the content library other services such as counselling sessions are very difficult to access.

Although the website suggests it takes five business days to get an appointment after initial contact, and many user reviews detail a frustrating experience involving lots of paperwork and follow-up calls to try to get the help they need. 

Telus also have lower requirements than most other providers when it comes to counsellor qualifications. According to their website, “all of the counsellors have at least a Master’s level education and a minimum 3 years of experience.” Their team of 23 experts contains a mix of clinicians and social workers, but there’s no mention of requirements around minimum hours of clinical experience, BACP- or NCS-resistration, or their training or hiring process to ensure quality.

AXA Health: Best EAP for broad wellbeing coverage 

‍Offering EAP services alongside its core business health insurance, AXA Health has a 24/7 support line to provide help in areas such as:

• Work-related issues e.g. stress
• Life management
• Financial and legal concerns
• Housing worries
• Relationship and family matters
• Health and safety concerns
• Mental health support
• Medical results and prescribed medication

Employees can access a broad range of health advice from nurses, counsellors, midwives and pharmacists to support with “everyday life management”. This is ideal for companies looking to provide far reaching support for employees with personal issues that might be impacting their performance at work (such as difficulty sleeping) rather than serious or longer-term mental health conditions. With their standard EAP package, helpline support will “guide your teams to online help including practical, medical and wellbeing guides” while the premier offering includes “up to 8 sessions of counselling” pending a health assessment and referral. Longer-term counselling and critical incident management are available as add-ons.

However, user reviews suggest that accessing these counselling sessions can be a long and difficult process, and that many claims are rejected as they are considered to be pre-existing conditions

Compare the best EAP providers

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Here is how the 5 best EAPs compare to each other in terms of feature set, counselling access methods and pricing.

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Questions to ask when choosing an EAP

“What services do you offer?”

The crux of an EAP is to offer support to employees who need it, but it's important to know exactly what’s on offer. Most EAP providers offer advice and counselling for life-related issues such as work, finances, family, and health, but the specifics can vary. So, ask for a detailed breakdown and find out if there are any limitations on how much help an individual can get: for example, is there a cap on the number of phone calls someone can make to the helpline or the number of therapy sessions they can benefit from? 

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“How long does it take to get support?”

While a 24/7 helpline is commonplace amongst providers, this doesn’t necessarily mean someone gets support straightaway. Find out how long your employees will need to wait for their first appointment after initial contact and ask how many people actually get counselling: in general, it's thought that 60% of people who call their EAP provider end up being signposted to self-help resources rather than actual counselling. 

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“What’s the usage like for your EAP?”

You want to provide your employees with a service that will actually benefit them. So, ask the company representative outright what the average uptake is of their EAP in other companies. Keep in mind that making use of an EAP doesn’t necessarily mean receiving counselling. Find out how they determine usage and ask for a breakdown of use for the different services they provide.

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“How would my team access the EAP?”

EAPs are meant to make mental health support easy to access, so you’ll want to find out how easy it is to access the service you’re considering:

• Is it telephone only (which many people may feel uncomfortable with)?
• Can people get help via an online portal or mobile app?
• Can employees message a professional or is it only possible to chat to them?
• What form does counselling take — in-person (and if so, where would this take place), or via telephone or video call?

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‍“Who can use the EAP?”

‍It's a given that all employees in the company get access to the EAP, but find out if this support extends to others. Some providers include immediate family or dependents in their cover, meaning anyone in the employee’s family can use the EAP for support.

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“What’s the payment plan?

”As well as pricing, make sure you clarify the payment structure for the EAP — is it a monthly or annual subscription, or will you be entering into a contract for a specified amount of time? Is it possible to exit your contract early or change the level of cover (if possible) if it turns out uptake isn’t as you hoped? Remember as well to check if there are additional fees for certain services.

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‍“What kind of support do you offer businesses?”

‍Choosing an EAP is just the first step. As well as implementing it in the company, you’ll need to show people how to use it, promote it, and keep track of its usage and effect. Find out if the service comes with an account manager (or similar) to help you and what the troubleshooting process looks like in the event of a problem.

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‍“Do you have specific requirements for counsellors who work for you?”

‍Make sure you’re giving your team a quality service by finding out about the qualifications and experience required for counsellors and other EAP professionals: 

• Are they accredited or members of recognised associations, like the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP), or Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP)?
• How many hours of training and clinical practice must they have?
• Is it possible to request a therapist with a particular specialism?
• Do you offer counselling and support in multiple languages?